Toy Juxtaposition

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Accuse of me of being a consumerist whore or just plain being bored, but I like to skim through my direct mail on occasion. Even though I don’t pick up books as much as I would like to, I love reading. Magazines, blogs and even advertisements. So this Friday, I receive the Toys R Us circular pushing all of its summer toys. Now I’ve gotten the circular before and was amazed at the sheer grandiosity of the swing/play sets that are now sold. I remember when I was a kid I had a swing set. I thought it was pretty great. It kinda looked like the set below but with a metal slide instead of plastic and not as racial diverse mix of kids playing with it.

Anyway this particular swing set is the 2nd cheapest one listed on the Toys R Us website. I lived in a upper middle class neighborhood growing up and this was about what other kids had. When I flip through this circular, the average “gym” was nicer than my first apartment. Look at this crap below. Rock wall, clubhouse, twist slide and I think the kids in the picture come with it so you can have sycophantic playmates. It just makes me realize how spoiled kids are these days…

But this is not the point of the blog. There were two toys in the summer circular that caught my attention. I went on the Toys R Us website to find pictures of the two to show and write about. Low and behold, they appeared on the home page and it seemed like an extreme juxtaposition to me. I am talking about are circled.

The “Natural Toys” is apparently the result of Toys R Us “re-thinking playtime with our exclusive new line of environmentally conscious toys.” Apparently an unpainted wooden toy car or train is a revolutionary change in toys. Nevertheless, it is a departure from complex expensive toys to something simple. A type of toy that makes kids use their imagination to play with it instead of feeding them some toy executive interpretation of imagination through battery powered medium. I am all for it but apparently you have to be a hippie to want to buy some unpainted wooden toys.

The second is a monstrosity called the Cyclone (see it enlarged here). Do you remember Slip N Slide? Well this is Slip N Slide for spoiled upper middle class kids whose parents are divorced and trying to buy their kids’ love. For a mere $500, your kid can become the most popular kid on the block with their own 180 degree tornado shaped inflatable water slide with splash pool! I remember trying to get my parents to buy me a $30 Super Soaker was a chore. Asking for a $500 inflatable water slide? I guess when you get a $2000 playset/gym, $500 is small potatoes. But I suppose after the water bill comes, it’ll end up costing you $2000. I’m not even going to get started on the amount of water wasted while millions live without potable water in third world countries…that’s another blog.

I just thought the juxtaposition of a simple wooden toys and the epitome of spoiled American consumer gluttony was fitting. I’m getting to the point when I look at the time when I grew up as a much simpler time. I suppose it was but I am concerned about how much as a society we give to our kids. Chances are several of these kids are just handed a $500 water slide or $2000 swing set without having to earn it in any manner, whether it be through good grades, chores or whatever. And then we are surprised when they grow up with a sense of entitlement and not knowing the value of a dollar. The thing is that only parents can stop it. The toy makers are reveling in the fact that we will literally pay any cost to satiate our kids ephemeral desires. They market to them relentlessly on TV and websites, which I am sure parents play close attention to. Watch an hour of Saturday morning cartoons and you will see how kids are trained to become consumers. It is the way of America. Unfortunately few parents do anything to counteract what media tells them, in fact they generally reinforce it. So parents enjoy the nagging for a Cyclone! And once you buy it, let me know so I can come over and play on it…

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Tags: toys r us, cyclone, toys, spoiled kids, swing set, gym